This is a small village near Dover in Kent. My intention is to show some of the Village, its history and the wildlife I find there.

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

Air conditioned

The air-con on Pam's car has been playing up ( aluxury mine doesn't have) and having had a new part fitted I took it to be re-gassed today. I was going to walk to the downs at Temple Ewell, to look for Silver Spotted skippers but in the end decided on Bushy Ruff and an attempt at photographing the Emperor Dragonflies that would almost certainly be flying today.

It was hot, very HOT and I wasn't the only one feeling the heat when I got there. This Blackbird was "panting" to cool itself down. There were two Emperors on the lake and they spent a lot of time chasing each other at a good distance from the edge. Neither seemed to have a regular patrol route that took them close to a suitable position and I didn't see any egg laying. Last year one that I photographed had a couple of fixed areas where it spent a fair time hovering, but not so this year. I did take a few shots and having looked at them I've now pressed the delete button. Shame but hopefully there will be other chances.

While I was following one of the Dragonflies in the view finder, the familiar call of a Green Sandpiper rang out, and to my surprise one landed on the water weeds and algae right in front of me. It didn't hang around, Like Garbo it wanted to be alone and soon realised that the click of a camera meant that there was company close by. By the time I got back to pick Pam's car up I was really pleased that the air-con now worked and I could cool down on my way back.